1 Preface
After the Spring Festival every year, major universities start school, and many students return to campus, and the market also ushers in a traditional peak sales season.
For friends who have not been involved in computer hardware for a while, it is difficult for them to distinguish one by one in the face of the many graphics cards on the market. When purchasing graphics cards, they will inevitably fall into some misunderstandings: "Graphics cards with high frequency are faster, and the larger the graphics memory capacity, the better the performance. If you buy a graphics card, you must buy one that supports DX10..." Many consumers are overly obsessed with the operating frequency and the parameters of the graphics card, and often get into misunderstandings when purchasing graphics cards.
In order to help users avoid misunderstandings when purchasing graphics cards, the author has summarized five points that need to be paid special attention to when purchasing graphics cards, and hopes to help consumers when choosing products.
2 Don't be fooled by high-frequency graphics cards
"The performance of this graphics card is actually similar to that one, and it works faster and has a cheaper price." I believe this sentence is very familiar to many friends.
Many friends browse hardware online and order a configuration plan to install the store, they are often "swearing" by the store MM. They often recommend other models of graphics cards. For example, the current 8600GT with DDR3 graphics memory is around 599 yuan, and the store's JS will fool consumers into buying a high-frequency version of the 8500GT graphics card. The default frequency of this high-frequency version of the 8500GT is generally slightly higher than that of the 8600GT, and the price ranges from 499 yuan to 599 yuan. When consumers do not understand the difference between their core specifications, they often buy high-frequency low-end graphics cards.
|
8600GTS
|
8600GT
|
8500GT
|
|
|
Core code
|
G84
|
G84
|
G86
|
| Number of transistors |
289 million |
289 million |
210 million |
| Process |
TSMC 80mm
|
TSMC 80mm
|
TSMC 80mm
|
| Core clock frequency |
675MHz
|
540MHz
|
450MHz
|
| Core Shader frequency |
1450MHz
|
1200MHz
|
900MHz
|
| Video memory clock frequency |
2000MHz
|
1400MHz
|
800MHz
|
| Video memory type |
GDDR3
|
GDDR3
|
GDDR2
|
| Video memory bit width |
128bit |
128bit |
128bit |
|
Video memory capacity |
256M |
256M |
256M |
| Unified shader number |
32
|
32
|
16
|
| Number of texture processing units |
8
|
8
|
4
|
| Number of ROPs |
8
|
8
|
4
|
| Support DirectX version |
10
|
10
|
10
|
| Interface bus |
PCIE
|
PCIE
|
PCIE
|
A graphics card is mainly composed of power supply potential, graphics memory, PCB board, heatsink and display core. The highest price and the most important thing to determine the performance level of the graphics card is the display core. Therefore, for graphics cards with different cores, it is almost impossible to close each other's performance levels through overclocking. A more distinctive example is the 8600GT and 8500GT of the nVIDIA GeForce 8 series. The core architecture of the former is twice that of the latter. The core frequency of the public version 8600GT is 540Mhz. According to the theory, if the 8500GT reaches the 8600GT level, the core frequency needs to reach twice that of the 8600GT to remain the same, but this is an almost impossible task for the G86. Therefore, when we choose a graphics card, we should pay more attention to the display core of the graphics card, rather than just looking at the running frequency of the graphics card.
3 Don't be fooled by the graphics card with large video memory capacity
"This graphics card has a 512M video memory capacity, which is especially suitable for large screens and has better performance than those with low capacity."
This sentence is also often heard in stores, because the display core uses other code names, such as AMD-ATi's RV670, RV630, nVIDIA's G84, and G86. Many friends cannot fully understand these special numbers, and the graphics card frequency and memory capacity are the most intuitive. The large number of graphics card parameters often give consumers a better feeling of performance.
In addition, many merchants who promote products will say that graphics cards with large video memory capacity can achieve better performance at high resolution. Theoretically speaking, the larger video memory capacity will continue to load immediately without clearing it when loading the game, which will accelerate the game loading speed to a certain extent and reduce the player's waiting time. But we should first consider the core factors of the graphics card. For graphics cards of 8500GT/8600GT levels, they are generally enough with 256M video memory. To give a simple analogy, if you take a water tank to a lake to fetch water, the amount of water you get does not depend on how much water the lake is, but on how big your water tank is. Only with a higher level display core and larger video memory capacity can the power of the graphics card be truly exerted.
This type of graphics card with large video memory capacity often under the banner of "widescreen version", and dealers even recommend that this type of graphics card is particularly suitable for large-screen monitors. But let's think about it, how many people currently use 24-30-inch monitors. Generally speaking, even a 22-inch monitor is enough to match a 256M graphics card.
4 Don't be fooled by low-end DX10 graphics cards
"This graphics card supports the latest XX special effects, which is much better than the XX graphics card."
I believe everyone still remembers that when the 8500GT was launched, the price was high at 799 yuan, and the 7600GT at that time had dropped to around 700 yuan. In terms of performance, the 8500GT did not have any advantage over the 7600GT. When purchasing graphics cards, users should not numbly pursue new technologies. Graphics cards such as 8500GT/8400GS need to support DX10 special effects. However, in the face of many DX10 games on the market, they are always powerless. Instead of spending money to buy a DX10 graphics card that cannot run DX10 games, it is better to buy a DX9 graphics card with good performance.
Nowadays, DX10 graphics cards like 8500GT/2600Pro have generally dropped to a price of 399 yuan, which is actually very consistent with their own positioning. As the first generation of mainstream DX10 graphics cards, 8500GT/2600Pro does not have the performance of DX10 gaming. As entry-level DX10 graphics cards, their market positioning of 399 yuan is very suitable. Users need to be careful when purchasing graphics cards and do not numbly pursue new technology graphics cards.
5 Don't be fooled by outdated graphics cards
"The machine I installed is from Pentium 4, right?"
Many friends who have little understanding of hardware may still be in the "Ben 4" era. When they choose graphics cards, they will also look at outdated high-end graphics cards, such as 6800XT and 9800Pro. Compared with the past, their prices seem very cheap, but this type of graphics cards are outdated and it seems difficult to face new games on the market. When purchasing these graphics cards, you still need to consider issues such as power consumption and heat generation.
Of course, many AGP users still plan to purchase this type of graphics card to upgrade the platform. However, most of these outdated graphics cards on the market are manufactured with re-repair graphics card chips. They often cut corners in terms of manufacturing and materials, and there is also a lack of inventory. Often, warranty is difficult when there is a problem with the graphics card. Therefore, it is recommended that users do not consider such eliminated graphics cards when purchasing graphics cards.
6 Pay attention to when purchasing graphics card brands
In fact, in addition to the above precautions, graphics card brands are also very worthy of attention. In order to achieve a certain sales volume, some JS will also use graphics card BIOS and other methods to deceive consumers. For example, some brands in the market used to display their 7300GT BIOS as 7600GT for sale. These practices of concealing and deceiving consumers are quite harmful to the entire market and consumers. Of course, these are individual examples, and many manufacturers still attach great importance to building brands. When choosing a graphics card, we should first consider brands with high popularity. For some miscellaneous graphics cards, the prices may be much discounted, but after-sales and quality assurance are quite lacking.
Summary: When choosing a graphics card, pay more attention to the core level of the graphics card, and avoid choosing high-frequency and large-capacity high-priced graphics cards. For new graphics cards, you should consider whether you can use them. Do not numbly pursue new products. Try not to consider products from two generations ago. Finally, for friends who don’t know much about the market, choosing a highly-known graphics card brand is more guaranteed. This is what we need to consider when purchasing graphics cards.
You can also check the information on our PConline product library. By comparing two graphics cards with different cores, consumers have a deeper understanding of the graphics cards they need to choose. (We will also summarize the core of the mainstream graphics card models on the market later to help consumers understand) You can also pay attention to our graphics card shopping guide column. We will often summarize some cost-effective graphics cards on the market for you, and often pay attention to the graphics card market conditions that have a more outline of the product's market trend, thereby avoiding the misunderstanding of purchasing graphics cards.